Farm Viability

Pursue policies and other initiatives which return a larger portion of the food dollar to farmers.  Farm Viability includes Pay Farmers More and Organic Foods.

Pay Farmers More
Pay farmers more for sustainable production of healthy food

Farmers earn far too little income for the work of producing food. Prices paid to farmers for basic commodities like corn, wheat, pork, and beef have not risen in decades, while farm costs (e.g. seeds, labour, fertilizers, and machinery) have gone up. We must find ways to ensure farmers' livelihoods and pay them sufficiently for their products.

Organic Food
Support and promote organic/sustainable farming in the region

We need policies that pay farmers for maintaining environmental features like carbon-sequestering soils, forests, and wetlands. We need policies that help farmers transition toward organic production methods, which reduce farm costs for things like chemical fertilizers and put more of our food dollars into paying farmers to be environmental stewards.